State Senator Brad Hoylman represents New York's 27th State Senate District, which covers much of the heart of Manhattan, including the neighborhoods of Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, the Upper West Side, Midtown/East Midtown, Columbus Circle, Times Square, Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, the East Village and Lower East Side. He was first elected to the State Senate in November 2012 after having spent more than 20 years as a Democratic grassroots activist in the communities he represents.

Senator Hoylman is a former Democratic District Leader and three-term Chair of Manhattan Community Board 2. He is a former Trustee of the Community Service Society, New York City’s leading anti-poverty organization, and is a former board member of the Empire State Pride Agenda, Tenants & Neighbors, Class Size Matters and Citizen Action. A past-president of the Gay & Lesbian Independent Democrats, he and his husband, David, and their young daughter, Silvia, are members of the LGBT synagogue, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah.

Although Senator Hoylman has deep roots in Manhattan, he was born and raised in rural West Virginia as the youngest of six children. He attended public schools through college, graduated with honors, won a Rhodes Scholarship, and put himself through Harvard Law School. After graduating, he began his non-profit legal career in affordable housing, eventually becoming general counsel of the Partnership for New York City, a non-profit business and civic organization.Senator Hoylman is a strong advocate for better public schools, tenants’ rights, responsible development, neighborhood preservation, open space and public transportation. He has brought to Albany the same reform-minded approach that he demonstrated as a community activist and leader.

Some of his top priorities include: fighting for New York City’s fair share of education dollars and increasing parental involvement in school governance decisions; strengthening laws to protect rent regulated tenants; reforming campaign finance laws to encourage smaller donations and wider participation in the political process while lessening the corrupting influence of big money donations; making the state tax system more progressive; winning passage of the Gender Equality Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), securing greater resources for LGBT youth; and keeping transit fares low while improving maintenance and operations on our subways and buses.

Senator Hoylman is proud to represent New York State’s 27th Senate District, which includes some of New York City’s oldest and storied neighborhoods, and to be an advocate for those New Yorkers who normally do not have a voice in the halls of government.